Improving your quality score in AdWords

A low Quality Score can have a noticeable impact on the performance of your paid ads. The lower the score, the less likely you are going to show where you want to in Search Engine Ads and potentially the more costly your ads are going to be!

What is a Quality Score and how is it calculated?

Your Quality Score is a metric that is based on the relevance of your ad and landing page in relation to the keywords you’re targeting.

Google assesses the quality of ads by looking at three key areas; expected click through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Cover these three areas and your Quality Score is bound to improve.

Making the most of your ads

So, what can you do to your ad copy and related landing pages to improve your Quality Score?

Review your keywords. Your keyword research should form the foundation of your campaigns, with specific search terms being targets because that is what your audience is search for. If you find that you’re not performing so well for certain terms, then perhaps it’s time to review your focus, introduce new terms, or check that relevant terms are present on your landing pages.

Review your page copy. If your landing pages look dated, offer a poor customer experience, or fail to include any of the relevant search terms for your ad campaign, then you won’t receive a high quality score. Simple changes such as adding keywords to your copy can help improve experience and ad relevance, but you may find you need to make larger, technical changes, such as introducing a responsive design for improved User Experience for your mobile traffic.

Review your ads. If people are failing to click on your ads, then your Click Through Rate (CTR) is going to decrease. Checking your copy and making sure it is enticing to customers is one of the best ways to increase the number of ad clicks and paid traffic to your website. Make sure you’ve added all relevant ad extensions as these provide more information and often attract a higher click through rate.

Key things you need to know

Unfortunately, Google doesn’t base Quality Score on your current keywords, but actually estimates them based on past data. Therefore it could take a little while for your quality scores to improve. However, much like SEO the slow and steady wins the race rule applies here, improve your quality score now, and expect to see improved performance down the line.

Google grades your Quality Score from 1-10 (with 10 being the best possible score your ad can achieve), so you can quickly determine which ads need improving.

Sometimes Quality Score can’t be determined. If your keyword hasn’t made enough impressions or clicks, then Google can’t generate a quality score. Despite this, you can still use the tips above to improve the performance of your ad.

If you’re struggling to make your PPC campaign perform as well as you want it to, then why not get in touch with a member of our digital marketing team? We’re experts in running paid ad campaigns and can help you improve your quality score and get the results you want! Speak to our PPC team in Bristol today by calling 0117 933 0570 or by filling in one of our contact forms.